


Academic Insurgence

by GhostJ



Category: Campaign (Podcast), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Get Campaign (Podcast) Its Own Tag, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Lyn & Tap are BFFs, OMG listen to it!, Podcast: Campaign (Star Wars), Sorry Bacta, Take Your Fandom to Work Day, Vague spoilers for Campaign: Side Trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-02-23 14:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13191600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostJ/pseuds/GhostJ
Summary: (Announcer) We follow Dr. Lyntel’luroon as she fulfils the most sacred of all academic responsibilities; being the keynote speaker at the yearly PaGAA (Pan-Galactic Archeologists Association) Conference. But although our boys handled themselves handily in the wet heat of BHIKKE, will they find such an intellectual event too dry and dusty for their comfort? And what of the greatest mystery of all? Could it be that one of the assembled luminaries will be able to shed some light on the impossible question, just who is Lyn’s mystery BFF?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So it looks like I’m going to be contributing to the ‘Get Campaign (Podcast) Its Own AO3 Tag’ mission, yay! 
> 
> Warnings:  
> a) Vague spoilers for Campaign: Side Trip, in that Lyn has a best friend, his name is Tap Chitra and he's wonderful. If you haven't listened to Side Trip, it is BRILLIANT and totally worth the price of admission to the not-so-secret archive. I'll try to remember to give a bit of extra description to Tap when we get to him for those who sadly haven't listened to Side Trip, but honestly - go do that thing.  
> b) I am still sadly lacking a beta-reader and so my apologies for bad grammar, weird wording, inconsistent POVs, switching tenses, and extreme OOCness.  
> c) [and this one is likely the bigger issue] I got into Star Wars _via_ Campaign. I HATED Star Wars until I stumbled upon that weird quirky spaceship and its adorable trash lords. I’ve tried very hard here to make something believably set in the extended Star Wars galaxy, but I actually don’t know much at all about the political aspirations of the Empire, or the Force (I’ve heard it’s a bit like duct-tape?). If you notice something that sins against canon and kanan, please do let me know, but maybe otherwise just lie back and think of Anakin?
> 
> Hello Heroes! And welcome to another fanfic of Campaign. I’m certainly not Kat Khul or anyone who owns any of the characters or story rights that you’ll see bastardised here today. I also certain do not own anything to do with Disney, Lucas Films, or Star Wars and any of their various and sundry gaming systems.  
> By the Ringest god, please don’t sue me.
> 
> Lastly, I do not give permission for this fic to be posted on any other site (e.g. Goodreads), or remixed in any fashion (please send me a note if you have any interest in doing such!). Although if someone wants to give it a push on the Campaign kink-meme that would be awesome :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really this is a Candle Nights present to myself since I require more Tap in my life.  
> That being said, this was supposed to be a quick little ficlet and instead (as these do), it’s rather exploded; I just had so much fun writing these lovable jerkfaces hanging out that I got a bit carried away – sadly our good, good boy didn’t even make it into this chapter, but he will definitely make an appearance in the next.

“Wait, this one’s for Lyn,” Leenik said as he leafed through the letters that had come tucked into his recent delivery of Starlight in Your Eyestalks. The Rhodian was standing at the end of the Mynock’s ramp; enjoying the breeze through his (currently) red curly hair, as this planet’s sun started to slowly rise across the horizon.

Leenik sighed happily as he read over the summary on the back, of course Nemo had offered to give him his own copy (after Leenik had broken into his bunk to look over the manuscript for the 3rd time), but it just wasn’t the same as the bubbly feeling of joy he got from seeing the non-descript brown package drone strafing the Mynock for its monthly delivery.

He pocketed the other letters, 3 ‘Dear Mynock’s and a blood red post card that simply read ‘Just you wait LEENIK GEELO!’ with a small hand-drawn carton showing an inspired 5-step deflection kata for heavy swords, and attached his monthly literary contribution to the bot for return dispersal.

Turning back inside, he made his way to the kitchen; it was early enough that (most) everyone would be around and hopefully he could catch Lyn before she disappeared into the forest of this nameless backwater planet they were currently hiding out on.

“But that’s not the way it works!” He heard Bacta whine as the doors whooshed open.

“Bacta,” Lyn said, the twi’lek sounding exasperated, but fond.

Leenik noted that the two had their caf already and were sitting across from each other at the table with several books and datapads spread out between them. “I will play the music if I need to. This is something _basic_ that you should know! I mean, you are a medic! Obviously with our crew it’s not likely to be a pressing issue, but weren’t you friends with Tamlin’s mum?”

Leenik heard Bacta groan as he walked over to the machine and poured his own caf. He tucked Lyn’s letter into this pocket to have both hands free, before turning to walk over to the table.

Noting that Bacta had dropped his head into his hands and, judging by the colour of his scalp, was blushing furiously Leenik sat by him; the clone was obviously in no state to notice if some of his I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Space-Bacon went missing, whereas Lyn was a canny foe, and Leenik hadn’t remembered to grab his own plate.

Grabbing a few pieces quickly, Leenik cocked his head towards the ceiling and asked “Hey Kat, if I wanted to make Tony breakfast in bed, what room would I take it to?”

“You can negate that order Kat,” Lyn said, waving a small hello and smirking at the sudden decrease of food on Bacta’s plate. “I saw Tony and Tamlin walking with Tryst outside a few minutes ago. I’m actually surprised that you didn’t see them.”

“Wait, Tryst’s awake?” Bacta asked, sounding astonished. He lifted his head out of his hands to turn a questioning look on Leenik.

“No” “Why are you blushing?” Leenik asked his question over Lyn’s response as he looked at his crewmate with pointed innocence.

“ _Kriff_ ,” Bacta swore, dropping his head back into his hands in acute embarrassment.

“Nevermind Leenik,” Lyn chided as she reached across the books on the table to pat the back of Bacta’s head in a comforting manner. “But, Bacta _really_ thanks you for the medical textbook you got him for LifeDay.”

“See!” Leenik crowed, poking Bacta with the envelope he’d just taken out of his pocket to present to Lyn. “Now maybe you’ll stop failing at heal checks all the time! This way if we _need_ a medic-”

Leenik jerked back as Bacta suddenly sat bolt upright and turned to him.

“ _You_ can’t get pregnant, right? _Right, Leenik?!_ ” Bacta’s eyes were wild with fear as he turned and shouted at the ceiling. “Quick, Kat! If I needed to make a cake for a pregnant Rhodian, what symptoms would I look for?”

“And on that note…” Lyn muttered as she pulled out a small leather-bound journal and jotted down a few notes, shrugging in a way to suggest to Leenik that they let Bacta settle a bit.

“Oh!” Leenik remembered he was holding Lyn’s letter, and smiled, speaking over Bacta’s panicked cooking-based questions to Kat. “Someone, and by someone I mean you, got a letter!”

“What?” Lyn asked as she reached forward to take the letter and look at the return address on the front.

“Hmmm…” She reached into her sleeve, pulled out a small penknife and slit the envelope open, shaking the contents onto a free space on the table, before sliding the knife back to its hidden holster. “Oh, it’s an invite to be the keynote speaker at this year’s PAGAA conference.”

There was suddenly silence as Leenik and Bacta both stopped to stare at her incredulously from across the table.

“You know, the Pan-Galactic Archeologists’ Association conference?” Lyn continued. “I mentioned it when we were talking about BHKKE and how I _have_ in fact been to other conferences.”

“Wait,” Leenik said, tapping the fingers of his robot hand on the table (a habit he’d picked up now that they didn’t stick). “Shouldn’t it be pronounced _p’gaaaah_? Not pah-gah?”

“No. P-GAA is the Planetary-Galactic Association of Archaeologists,” Lyn said, distracted, as she read over the letter.

“No, I think that would be p’ga-oh-aq.” Leenik sounded it out a few times more to check.

“None of the acronyms you have just said, should sound like you think they sound,” Bacta agreed.

“Hey,” Leenik said, turning to the clone. “Isn’t _p’gaaaah_ a type of Space!gonorrhea?”

“PAGA isn’t a type of Space!ghonorrhea,” Lyn said with an edge to her voice. “It’s a bi-yearly academic conference for archeologists and I am going to be this year’s keynote speaker.”

“But- but!-” Bacta sputtered in indignation. “You’re a rebel!”

Lyn looked at him and raised a single eyebrow questioningly.

“You are on a ship with wanted fugitives, and since the incident with the verpine, you are probably wanted yourself. Why would they ask _you_ to attend?” Bacta asked, the disbelief clear in his voice.

“Maybe,” Lyn put down her cup with an angry clink, saying an icy voice. “Because I am one of the top researchers in my field and they want to, and I quote, ‘provide me the opportunity to present my groundbreaking research on the development of unique cultural practices stemming from the impacts of close confinement on multi-species groups and the parallels to ancient societal-”

“Wait, Lyn,” Bacta cut in, sounding something between shocked and hurt. “Have you been doing research on _us_?”

“Of course,” Lyn replied, sounding confused at his response. “The cultural structures you’ve developed here on the Mynock are fascinating analogies; I mean the burnball ceremony alone-”

“You are doing research on us…” Bacta repeated seemingly in shock. “You are _publishing_ research on us?!”

“What is wrong with publishing?!” Lyn snapped back, becoming defensive. “At least I change your names, which is more than Leenik does!”

“Hey, hey!” Leenik said defensively, he’d been doing really well up to now keeping out of the conversation and instead had been focused on removing all the potentially tasty pieces of Bacta’s breakfast.

“Yeah Bacta, if Lyn is able to get some cash out of the situation we should let her. Someone here besides Nemo needs to make a living.” Tryst broke into the conversation as the doors whooshed open to let him enter.

Tryst was looking particularly disheveled this morning, his kimono trailing leaves and bits of bark onto the floor as he walked purposefully to the caf machine.

“Tryst, where are Tamlin and-” Bacta started.

“Tony!” Leenik cheered, holding out his flesh hand for a good-morning sniff as his son and Tamlin tried to slink unobtrusively past Tryst to hide under the table. Tony grumbled at Leenik’s loud greeting, which had substantially increased the difficulty of their stealth role, but subsided as Leenik passed him the remainder of Bacta’s breakfast.

“Yes. Instead of discussing Lyn’s treating us like space guinea pigs, why don’t we talk about how I woke up with my hammock swinging between two treetops this morning?!”

Tryst snarled threateningly as he turned to the assembled crew. “And don’t think I didn’t see you both sneak under there. Just you brats wait. I’m going to come over there and- And take off my boots! And put my feet in your faces.”

“But Uncle Tryst,” Tamlin said from where he was cuddled up against Bacta’s legs. “ _I’m_ wearing your boots!”

Tryst looked down at his bare feet and wiggled his toes.

“Hun, why so you are.” He shrugged and sipping on his caf, walked to the table and sat down beside Lyn. “So what’s this about you getting some type of academic love letter?”

“It’s not a-” Lynn snarled in exasperation, before stopping herself and pointedly taking a drink of her caf before carrying on in a calmer voice. “Look, normally I would be the first to say that I couldn’t go to this.”

“Damn right you can’t go!” Bacta all but screeched, “It’s a trap, _obviously_!”

“As I was saying,” Lyn continued over the snickered repeats of ‘it’s a trap!’ from the rest of the crew. “Normally, I would be the first person to say we shouldn’t do this. BUT-” She held a hand up to stop Bacta’s triumphant response. “ _But,_ my funding is coming up for review and this might be my last chance this cycle to get this type of presentation on my CV.”

“I’m sorry Lyn,” Bacta said disapprovingly. “But that sounds like you are willing to risk the lives of this crew on- on your job! Your. Job. Wait, how do you even _have_ a job?!”

“Of course I have a job! I told you; I’m researcher! Remember? _Dr._ Lyntel’luroon?” Lyn asked, looking around at the others for support and shaking her head when she saw only shrugs.

“But that’s not a real _job_!” Bacta countered. “I mean, you don’t get paid for it!”

“When you are a tenured professor you certainly do!” Lyn snapped back.

“How can you be a professor being constantly on the run?!” Bacta shook his finger at Lyn before noticing what he’d done and blushingly lowered his hand to the table. “And anyways, you said you’d quit.”

“I quit Explorer Corp when I found out they were misusing my research to support the Empire,” Lyn agreed. “Now, I only publish to open access journals.”

“Oh! Here it is.” Leenik said, scrolling on the data pad he’d pulled from the pile on the table. “The New Nomads - Development of Cultural Norms in the Microcosm of Small Interstellar Freighters by Dr. Lyntel’luroon and... Dr. T Chitra?”

Leenik turned to Tryst, “Hey, check out- Oh wait, you can’t read this.” He slid the data pad under the table as Tryst glared at him. “What do you think, Tony?”

“I’m a tenured professor at UoWII*, Bacta.” Lyn continued, speaking over the slightly unnerving sound of vornskr claws scrapping along a glass surface. “As long as I keep publishing the Dean wouldn’t care if- if I was playing back up for the Khyber Crystals and pontificating on the impacts of Space!roosters on the religious development of Wookies while making out with one of Tryst’s sisters.”

“Heeyy,” Tryst grumbled, although he subsided when Lyn passed him the sugar.

“Ok, but we are agreed it’s going to be a trap, right?” Bacta insisted. “The Empire is going to have agents there, it’s going to be a trap.”

“It’s not a trap Bacta; it’s a scientific conference.” Lyn assured him. “Look, because I’m tenured I don’t have a lot of explicit responsibilities – SHUT UP TRYST – but part of the expectation is that I publish papers, present at conferences, and supervise graduate students. So we are _going_ to this conference.”

“Lyn, that doesn’t justify-” Bacta said, conciliatorily.

“Wait,” Tryst broke in, sounding like LifeDay had come anew. “ _Supervise_ _students_?”

 

_What will befall our heroes in the next chapter? Will they even make it to registration before 5000 words? Tune in to find out!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I was a bit concerned about making Lyn tenured at the University of Sanbra since I, again, don’t really know enough about the Star Wars universe know if that’s a thing that still exists? Instead, I hope you like the WtNV shout out – Yes, Lyn is a Professor at the University of What It Is (also why they are totally chill with her disappearing for cycles on end in the field).
> 
> I’m looking at an updating schedule of a chapter a week right now (chapters 2 & 3 are at ~ 90%) so subscribe if you are interested.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein we actually meet Lyn's BFF and no other plot development is had! (or is it...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings:  
> So all warnings from previous chapters still hold here (a - Tap Chitra exists, b – unbeta’d, c – kanan _is_ canon for me), new note on content/warning:
> 
> d) I am not an anthropologist or archeologist, and have never attended a conference for either of those disciplines. My academic background is in the biological sciences, and, as such, although the potentially staggering amount of alcohol consumption at an academic function that I describe moving forward is accurate to my experience at conferences; it might not be to those of the actual disciplines we’re dealing with here.
> 
> But it’s far more fun that way ;)
> 
> This chapter also sees the introduction of Dr. Tap Chitra. Lyn’s bestie. If you know about Tap, feel free to skip this next bit and start in on the actual chapter; if you haven’t had the pleasure of being introduced to Tap yet, that’s likely because you didn’t get a chance to listen to the fantastic side-arc Side Trip, where Kat and Pranks Paul double-team an Indian Jones/Arsène Lupin mystery-adventure arc where Lyn and Tap go up against the (eventually) Imperially-aligned Thrawn, Star Wars’ answer to Sherlock Holmes. Tap is a Corellian human of the same age as Lyn and they have a long standing friendship, like the type where when your family calls they ask you why _XX_ hasn’t visited them recently. In Side Trip they are both Professors (I'm saying Associate Professors due to their ages) at the University of Sanbra, but although Lyn’s focus is on field work, Tap prefers to stay at the University and focus on his research and the numerous grad students, grant applications, and day-to-day responsibilities of working in academia that Lyn prefers to shirk. He’s a good, good boy with a surprising skill-set that likely won’t play too big a role here and I’m loathe to spoil it (unless it turns out to the excellent comedic fodder), so that’s all I’ll say about it for now.
> 
> Thank you very much for staying with this ridiculous, but hopefully entertaining fic! This chapter is dedicated (not in a creepy way!) to [Prim_the_Amazing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prim_the_Amazing) who left me such a lovely comment on the first chapter; letting me know that someone is actually reading this :)
> 
> Lastly, I do not give permission for this fic to be posted on any other site (e.g. Goodreads), or remixed in any fashion (please send me a note if you have any interest in doing such!). Although if someone wants to give it a push on the Campaign kink-meme that would be awesome :D

“So where is it?”

“Leenik, I already told you there isn’t one.” Lyn growled at the Rhodian as they walked away from the registration table. She took a minute to look with distaste at the name tag she’d been provided and dropped it into one of her jacket’s pockets, even as she tossed the rest of the welcome packet into the nearby garbage.

She sighed and navigated Leenik around a Toydarian as they walked, as the smuggler was so focused on the event schedule he’d pulled from his registration package that he wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking.

“It _really_ isn’t that type of conference.” Lyn continued, bringing Leenik to a stop in front of a large set of doors.

“But if there isn’t an exhibitor hall, how will people know what’s for sale?” Leenik asked, pointing at part of the schedule detail. “It says here there’s going to be ‘archaic weaponry for use in counter-insurgence activities’.”

“ _Again_ , not that type of conference Leenik.” Lyn sighed, but looked at where he was pointing, since they were pretty far out from the core. “It says ‘archaic weaponry _and_ _its_ use in counter-insurgence activities’; there isn’t going to be a demonstration, they are presenting a _paper_ about it.”

“Look,” Lyn said, grabbing the door beside her and wrenching it open. “I need to find an organiser to talk to about my presentation tomorrow, so why don’t you go and check out the posters, ok? I’m sure you’ll find lots of people there who would be _very_ excited to talk to you about archaic weaponry _IN A PURELY THEORETICAL SENSE_ , ok? I have my comm on and I’ll come find you in 20.”

“Negative. Negative.” Bacta’s voice came through Leenik’s comm. “Stay with the target. She’s obviously looking to disengage from the buddy system and we can’t let her compromise mission BFF.”

“Belay that order,” Tryst cut in via the same channel. “I was just reading the schedule and we _absolutely_ want to go to the poster session.”

“So wait, now you can read _Cheunh_?” Bacta asked, the disbelief evident in his voice.

“Gesundheit?” Tryst responded.

“No- No! That’s the _language_ the schedule you are holding is _written_ in!” Bacta snarled. “Why are you even pretending you can read it?!”

“I can _so_ read! And in any case, we definitely want to check out that poster session ASAP, if you know what I mean. And what I mean is before Lyn gets there.” Tryst continued.

“Fine,” Leenik said in response to both Tryst and Lyn.

“They- they know I can hear them, right?” Lyn asked disbelievingly. “I did just say I had my comm-”

Leenik edged himself into the room and away from Lyn’s glare over the babbling on both their comms as he waved at the obviously irate Twi’lek. “Bye Lyn!”

Lyn let the door close and grumbled to herself as she looked around for the closest refreshment station. It was a gamble leaving the others running around unsupervised, but at least in the poster hall the worst they could do was _learn_ something.

“Lyntel! Lyn!”

“Tap!” Lyn cheered, recognising the voice and turned to greet her best friend.

Dr. Tap Chitra looked much the same as the last time she’d seen him, before her “sabbatical” on Myrkr, the middle-aged human male was dressed in a deep blue suit brown elbow patches, off-set with a checked spavat. His ancient leather satchel bouncing at his hip as he scurried down the hall towards her.

“Oh! I was so worried when you said you were coming! I mean we _just_ released that publication and they are already hounding you to present. I told you I should have been the first author, you know they never bother the second author for things like this.” He kept rambling even as he slowed to a stop in front of her and haphazardly adjusted his glasses.

“It’s good to see you, Tap!” Lyn said, cutting him off as she pulled her friend into a one-armed hug at her side. “Now, don’t worry about the talk! I’ve pulled something together. It will be fine!”

“But Lyn,” Tap sputtered, even as he threw a companionable arm around her waist. “I mean, I’m sure you’re prepared, but we haven’t even had the chance to insert my slides into the powerpoint…” Tap trailed off and let his head fall against Lyn’s shoulder in resignation, immediately noticing the futility of what he’d just said. “There isn’t a powerpoint, yet. Of course there isn’t.”

Lyn snorted a bit and didn’t bother to hide her large grin.

“Well,” Tap said, giving her a slight squeeze. “I guess I can pull something together from the slides I’ve started. But this is the _last time_ Lyn. Honestly, we aren’t _associate_ professors anymore.”

“Of course Tap, of course.” Lyn said soothingly, letting Tap go and turning them so she could face him, and tweak his spavat.

“You’re lying. I do believe that _you,_ Dr. Lyntel’luroon, are lying.” Tap said with a small fond smile on his face as he let her fuss.

“You know me so well _Dr_. Chitra,” Lyn responded, falling into the familiar pattern as if they’d seen each other only yesterday.

“That would be Dr. Dr. _Dr_. Chitra,” Tap cautioned jokingly, leading her back to where he’d been, with the 6 th sense of all researchers for nearby free caf, regardless that he’d likely just finished a cup while he’d been waiting for her to walk past.

“Oh really?” Lyn arched a tattooed brow at him.

“Well, we can’t all be running around doing _fieldwork.”_ Tap said with a small shudder as they approached the caf carafes and each grabbed a large cup.

“Look, Tap,” Lyn started as they moved to one of the smaller tables set up for discussions and put their cups down.

“No, _you_ look, Lyn,” Tap cut off her starting protest, before blushing and reaching for his satchel. “Just wait – first.”

“Tap, don’t do this.” Lyn whined as Tap started rummaging through his papers and data sticks.

“No Lyn, I have prepared for this – it’s just written – Ha! Found them.” With a flourish, Tap pulled a large flask and a small set of cue cards out of his bag’s main pocket. He handed the flask over to Lyn and started organising the cue cards in front of him. “Sorry – just some of the ones for tomorrow’s lecture got mixed in with them. I won’t be but a minute.”

Lyn sighed in resignation, but opened the flask and sniffed it. Smiling at her friend, she poured healthy doses of whiskey into each of their cups.

“Ah – here we go. Thank you Lyn.” Tap said, taking the flask back from her and putting it back into his satchel with some of the cue cards.

He cleared his throat.

“No, _you,_ look Lyn.” He started and then paused waiting for Lyn to wave him on as she took a long drink from her cup. “It isn’t safe. _You_ aren’t safe. You can publish about the cultural dynamics of Wookies in tea shops as much as you want, but enough people remember what your doctoral theses were on and they are asking questions. You can’t keep gallivanting alone-”

“To you?” Lyn cut in, concerned.

Tap blinked at her, looking down at his notes and back up, having lost the train of the speech.

“Are people asking _you_ questions?!” She clarified, even as she started to mentally run through the challenges in bringing _another_ person aboard the Mynock, let alone _Tap_. It was heartening to think that, if it came down to needing to kidnap her friend for his own safety, with Nemo’s recent departure there was a current opening for someone _sane_ onboard.

“Why of course.” Tap sounded unconcerned though, even mildly surprised that she sounded worried. “We’ve co-authored several dozen papers together at this point.”

“No, Tap! I mean, have you been _getting into trouble_? Has- has the empire been asking questions?” Lyn hissed, looking around to see if anyone was too obviously interested listening in.

“Oh, nothing like that. I admit that I’ve received several more _offers_ of unsolicited funding than I normally do.” He winked at her. “But in general, once I’ve had a chance to talk with them and really lay out my future research plans in detail, it often turns out, usually around hour twelve, that they are looking to fund less _theoretical_ studies.”

“Tap!!” Lyn laughed at his audacity, “you haven’t been. _Really_?”

“Come now Lyn,” Tap allowed himself a brief smile. “I’m a tenured professor in good standing on several academic boards. _And_ I’m currently holding the Gheal Fellowship-”

“Oh the _Gheal_ Fellowship,” Lyn teased, making Tap blush and stand a bit straighter.

“Hush you,” He cautioned jokingly, “But no, I’m safe for now. The University is how _it is,_ although rather quieter and less chaotic for your extended absence.”

“Oh, Tap.” Lyn reached across the table and took his hand in hers. “I miss you too.”

“Well, yes. That’s as it should be.” Tap said, giving her hand a squeeze. He took a sip of caf and immediately made a face. “I do suppose it’s free, but still it seems almost a shame to waste the whiskey on it.”  

He reached into his satchel to pull out the flask again, taking a moment to top off Lyn’s cup as well, even as she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Lyn please,” He said as he stashed the flask back in his bag and pulled out his event schedule. “I know it’s a waste of a good bottle, but we all know the caf at these events is awful and we’re _both_ going to need it to deal with the Alumni Association.”

“Oh no…” Lyn groaned. “What are they doing here?”

“Same as always I expect,” Tap said sighing. “Hoping that now we’ve paid off our student loans we’ll be willing to hand them some credits for some anniversary or networking event. Although I did hear something about a new directed mentorship program. Speaking of, did you see Professor Vrieska yet?”

“Really?! No, I hadn’t seen that she was presenting here.” Lyn said, snatching the schedule away from Tap who sighed in resignation even as he pulled a pre-loaded datapad with the schedule from his bag.

“Oh yes,” Tap continued blithely, taking a large sip of his drink. “Two students presenting posters, the poor things, and she’s talking about something on the main stage tomorrow morning. Undoubtedly rehashing the same hypothesis she’s been working on for the last seven cycles. She’s been hounding me to reach out to you about some work she wants to plan on Phindar-”

“Nope!” Lyn cut him off. “Very, _very_ much no.”

Tap looked at her questioningly, and, at the lack of her response, used a finger to manually raise his right eyebrow.

Lyn laughed and shook her head. “You _really_ don’t want to know.”

“Well, but then you _must_ tell me more about that crew you are studying.” Tap insisted his eyes bright with curiosity as he scrolled through his schedule. “I mean, I know _you_ are more interested in archaeology, but, as you know, the anthropological research associations have been absolutely fascinated by the data you’ve been collecting. I set one of _your_ students to present a paper on the… veto system? She’s come to some incredible conclusions through multivariate analysis. There’s already been some interest on a note in one of the journals…”

Tap trailed off as he realised that Lyn was no longer sitting across from him, but had started striding purposefully, caf in hand, back down the hall to the poster room. He scrambled, tossing his cue cards, datapad, and the event schedule back into his bag and, grabbing his own cup, scurried to catch up with her.

“I should have known _they_ weren’t interested in learning about _archaic weaponry_.” Lyn growled as she wrenched open the door to the hall with Tap trailing behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So currently we're looking at an update schedule of once a week over the weekends!  
> Chapter 3 is at 90% and will be ready for next weekend :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the boys start to get up to no good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So all warnings from previous chapters still hold here (a – Side Trip was awesome, b - unbeta’d, c – kanan is canon for me, d – my experiences at academic conferences may be cooler than yours, although not cooler than [Anticipatio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anticipatio/pseuds/Anticipatio)'s; thanks for your comments!). 
> 
> This is also the first chapter where we see OCs added for our crew to interact with; I hope you like them! Please be nice if you don’t, you’ll hurt _their_ feelings otherwise ;)
> 
> There are also A LOT of shout outs in this chapter, so if you’d like to play fandom bingo – I would recommend getting your cards out.
> 
> Thank you very much for staying with this ridiculous, but hopefully entertaining fic! There might be a bit of a delay in posting next week’s chapter as I am sick and writing anything that isn’t sheer utter nonsense is a wee bit challenging write now.

"So...” Bacta said, trying for nonchalant, but coming up well into socially awkward. “Is that a slug-thrower y’got there?”

The young Blarinan standing in front of the poster looked up from their datapad in startlement and swung their head around in confusion, looking disbelieving that someone might talk to them. After several long seconds, their eyes settled on the clone standing in front of their display, looking not so much at the holo-projection of their current research, but at the stand and the item in front of it.

“You recognise it?!” The Blarian said excitedly, showing all their sharp teeth as they grinned. “Yes, it’s something very analogous, but our research is leading us to believe that that’s not what this style of weapon was originally called.”

“Wait, really?” Bacta asked, staring in disbelief at the weapon and the excited student chattering a par-sec a minute at him.

“Oh, indeed.” They chittered, waving at the data on display behind them. “We haven’t been able to nail down the exact pronunciation; but from the glyphs you can see on the schematics pictured here, well…” They gestured the clone closer and hissed quietly, tapping the relevant part of the display. “Between you and me, since the publication won’t be out until next cycle, we’ve got the second one down as _locust_ and the first one… Is, is something to do with _sound_. It’s an incredible find, isn’t it?”

“So you found _schematics_ for an ancient slug-thrower and you are spending your time trying to figure out what they would have _called_ it?!” Bacta asked as he stood back up to look at the replica and, _kriff,_ read through the step by step schematics on display. “Wait, this isn’t _just_ a display piece, _is it?!_ ”

“Of course it is! It’s on display, isn’t it?!” The Blarian squeaked, flushing a gentle pink.

“Anakin _Skywalker_ – It’s actually _real_? You _built_ one for, what? Fun?!” Bacta hissed as he looked around, so far only a few people were paying attention to their discussion and, by the looks of it, the interest had more to do with the fact that there _was_ a discussion, rather than just more people staring off into the mid-distance at each other while they “read” a poster.

“Well, as you can see from the conclusion, it didn’t work.” The student sniffed. “We thought we’d gotten the translation correct, but there must have been a glyph that we didn’t identify correctly somewhere on the schematics. We lost almost a half a year of translation work when the lab exploded.” They looked sadly over the data they did have to display.

“Exploded?!” Bacta repeated in disbelief. “ _That little gun exploded a lab_?”

“We figure the projectile must have hit something in the wall after it went through the blaster screen.” The student nodded sadly. “That’s why I’m stuck here presenting a _poster_ rather than having a scheduled talk. My supervisor is insisting we comb through _all_ the translations again before they’ll let us really start to talk up the work to the rest of the community.”

“I tell you what!” They smiled up at the shell-shocked clone. “Why don’t you give me your code and I’ll send you a wave when we’re ready to publish? You’ll be able to read the full translation then and, you never know, we might be looking to diversify the authorship through another University. We could even talk about you coming on as an additional author!”

“That’s- That’s alright,” Bacta backed up and began cautiously moving away, far, _far_ away from the desperately grinning student.

“ _Kriffin’_ _hell_ , they’re _all_ mental.” Bacta muttered into his comm as he moved further down the poster row. “I thought Lyn was mad enough, doin’ research on her _friends_ , but _all_ these people are _crazy_. Don’t they realise what all this information could be used for?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about that. It’s not as if anyone _actually_ reads the stuff we publish anyways.” A high pitched trill interrupted his thoughts and Bacta looked down to see a middle-aged female Ewok in a blue suit leaning against a posters’ projection spool. She shook her head sadly and projected a heavy feeling of general disillusionment. “Poor kid still thinks that his research will make a difference to the big, wide galaxy, or at least be worth a couple of grants.” She shrugged. “Everyone is always hoping to be the next Lyntel’loorun after all.”

“Lyntel?” Bacta asked, coming to a stop and doing a quick glance over the display, since it seemed the polite thing to do. “A study into the cultural use of ethanol-derived beverages in sapient cultures: A proposition for and against the Founders theory[1]. Wait...”

“Yeah,” She trilled resignedly. “I figured if I was gonna get _kriffed_ for another 3 years, since it turned out my statistical analyses were based on the faulty assumption that my supervisor knew what they were doing, I might as well spend it with a valid excuse for day drinking. I’m N. Dantigre. Naroo to most of the other peons here.” She looked him up appraisingly, and gave a small bright smile. “You want some?”

“Sorry, what?!” Bacta backpedaled a bit in shock. “I mean, I’m sure you’re _very_ attractive to members of your own species-” 

“Cool your engines.” Naroo laughed as she pulled a large, for her size, flask out of a pocket on her suit. “I mean, you _obviously_ aren’t a researcher; you’re too interested in _talking_ with people, which makes you far and away more interesting than a good 89.1% of the people here.” She opened the flask and took a small sip, before proffering it to him. “It’s a home brew, but don’t worry,” She glanced darkly down the row of posters to the last student Bacta had been talking to. “I haven’t blown up any labs with it… Yet.”

Bacta shrugged and bent down to take the offered flask, which looked to be about the size of one of Tryst’s business cards. He took a sip, mindful of how much alcohol, really very little, would be able to fit into the flask; it tasted vaguely of apples. He took another sip to be polite and passed it back.

“So you’re N. Dantigre,” Bacta said, pointing towards the name on the display. And then pointed again with somewhat more accuracy. “And you were talking ‘bout Lyn?”

Naroo looked at him in confusion. “You mean Dr. Lyntel’loorun?” She smiled a bit wistfully and took another small sip. “You mean Dr. _Dr_. Lyntel’loorun, who single-handedly navigated the temple of Pa’laial on Utapau? Two publications a year, plus at least one requested editorial feature in a high impact journal, Dr. Lyntel’loorun? Or, no. You must mean tenured professor at _30_ , Dr. Lyntel’loorun?”

Bacta nodded. “Yes, that one?” He said, a bit uncertainly, since that seemed like a lot of recognition for someone who had spent a good two hours that morning chasing Tamlin around the kitchen to retrieve her leather jacket from _‘noo Uncle Lyn, I’m detective_ _Pepper Tupp!’_.

Naroo continued even more wistfully than before. “You know she hasn’t taught a lecture or lab class in over eight terms and yet she’s _still_ listed as the number two professor on RateYourProfessor.fb? There’s a waiting list to even get into first year MOOC she co-directs and those online courses are supposed to have _unlimited enrollment_. By the _force_ , I bet if she were my supervisor, I’d have graduated by now. _With honours._ ”

“Wait,” Bacta said, snapping his fingers together to help him focus. Naroo shrugged and passed him the flask. He shrugged and took another, slightly larger, sip. “Thanks,” he said, passing it back to her, or at least in her general direction. “But I wanted- I wanted to ask more ‘bout Lyn. How can she profess- profess- How can she _be_ a _professor_ , if she’s running around all whole time? She can’t right, she’s too busy being cool and smart and all- all _Lyn,_ all the time.” Naroo raised an eyebrow at him. “I mean, she’s my best friend, you know? And she never told me _anything_ -. She never really says _anything_ about all of this.” Bacta gestured expansively around them, nearly taking out a passing researcher.

“Well, according to her RateYourProfessor page,” Naroo had pulled out a small datapad and was expertly balancing the flask on it as she scrolled. “It _looks_ like she’s on sabbatical or doing field work, I guess? I mean we could check her LinkedIn profile?” Naroo looked at Bacta questioningly. “Or, there’s a few students here that she’s co-supervising, but...”

The Ewok looked around shiftily and gestured for Bacta to bend down, so she could whisper. Bacta swayed forward a bit, and decided to sit down instead.

Naroo shrugged as she put away the datapad. “Well, that works, I guess. So, you seem to maybe actually _know_ her, and also be a pretty big fan, I mean – aren’t we all – but anyways, you know how she completely switched her research focus a couple of years ago?” Bacta gave a, slightly wobbly, nod. “Went from exploring temples and knocking out artifact thieves to peeping through binoculars at people dancing around with bells on their legs or something.” She took a sip from the flask and, after a quick look over at Bacta, pocketed it. “That’s the problem with digging up buried treasure, there’s always someone who doesn’t realize that all of the notes we take are so we can put the stuff _back_ where it’s _supposed_ to go _._ And with the type of thing _she_ was finding, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of her restored artifacts ended up missing the next time she popped by.” Naroo sighed resignedly. “Archeology straight to pure anthropology? As my lab coordinator says when we ask about getting minions, _people_ tend to be a lot harder to steal than _artifacts_ , which is also why it can also make them a bit safer to focus your research on.”

“But what do I know?” Naroo shrugged and pulled a data-recorder from her pocket. “I’m just a lowly graduate student into her second victory lap.”

“You know how to make some _kriffin_ powerful home brew.” Bacta slurred.

The Ewok laughed as Bacta slowly toppled over, lifting the recorder to start recording. “Ahhh, it’s mostly apples.”

———-

“Heeeyyyy Leenik! Have you seen Bacta?” Tryst waved down the main hall of the poster room to get the Rhodian’s attention when he spotted him.

“I thought you were with him?” Leenik walked over, trying to remember the last time that the clone had checked in on their comms.

“Yeah, but he was talking about actually _reading_ some posters,” Tryst said disparagingly.  “I figure, if the kids presenting them look this bored,” he jerked his thumb at the student standing beside them, who shrugged in vague agreement. “There’s no way _I’m_ going to deal with that.”

“Yeah, sure,” Leenik’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “ _That’s_ the reason you didn’t _want_ to _read_ the posters.”

“Hey! I _could_ read these posters if I wanted to. In fact, I want to read _this_ poster.”  Tryst turned back to the now terrified looking human male beside him. “What’s this poster about?”

“Well- Uh, Sirs.” The student stumbled a bit over his words, while also sounding as if he were trying to read off of invisible cue cards. “As you can s-see f-from the abstract, we looked into twelve presumed middens on Hoth and Atoa and compared the levels of-”

“Wait, you somehow scored a project where you spend your time checking out chicks wearing tauntaun fur bikinis?” Tryst asked in shocked awe.

“I’m s-sorry, sir?” The young man asked in obvious confusion.

“I mean, part of me is like – sign me up? But, really, just what does it matter to you or anyone else if they are or aren’t _maidens_?” Tryst said, the word laden with heavy sarcasm. “It’s just a way to shackle people’s life choices, kid.”

The man stared at Tryst for a moment, before looking questioningly at Leenik for guidance.

“He said _middens_ Tryst; not _maidens_.” Leenik clarified condescendingly. “You know, like in ‘Digging for Romance on Ryloth’ when-”

“Oh! Oh! When Elamas and Devr’a are looking for evidence of cannibalism on the bone fragments and instead they find the fertility stones?” The student gushed, waving his hands in evident excitement. “Sir! That’s my favourite Nemodian Sparks book!”

“Of course it is,” Tryst muttered to himself in disbelief, looking between his crewmate and Leenik’s new best friend.

“Have you read ‘Desire on the Dunes of Du Mai’, yet?!” Leenik asked enthusiastically. “It’s sooo good!”

“What?! Noooo...” The student whined. “I’ve been so busy preparing for this conference that I haven’t had time yet, I’m _at least_ two books behind now... I mean, it’s my _first_ conference, right? And I’m hoping to move into a doctoral program once I’m done this project, so I wanted to make sure I could make a good impression when I met professors like you, sirs! I mean, a supervisor who reads Nemodian Sparks; that would be _so_ stellar!”

Tryst, sensing danger, stepped in before Leenik could introduce himself, even as he tried to remember what Lyn had instructed they do in this circumstance. “Ahhh, we aren’t _exactly_ professors.”

“But, you’re _dressed_ like professors.” The student gestured to Tryst’s reading kimono and the leather jacket and wide-brimmed hat that Leenik had liberated, with some help, from Lyn’s wardrobe that morning. Tryst looked around at the other attendees with new eyes and noticed that overwhelmingly the people moving from poster to poster looked like they’d wandered out of an insane asylum through a thrift store during Hallowe’en.

“Wait,” The student said, dropping his voice to an almost whisper and looking around shiftily. “Are you with... _The private sector_?”

“Yeah,” Tryst hastened to agree. “That’s it. We’re very, uhh, _private_. So private that you’ve _definitely_ never heard of us.”

“I’m Leenik Geelo.” Leenik said, holding out his robot hand.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” the student said, as he nervously took Leenik’s hand and shook it quickly before stepping back hastily. He coughed as if to clear his throat and said loudly as he looked around. “I’m not looking for a role in the private sector just yet, b-but I-I appreciate your interest in my research.”

“Uhhh…” Leenik said, looking askance at Tryst. “I’m Leenik Geelo. Of the Mynock?”

“I’m sorry, sirs.” He hissed at them, looking wide-eyed and desperate. “I-I really am focused on an academic career at this time, b-but please, _please_ consider me for future funding opportunities.”

“We will,” Tryst said, equally desperate to end a conversation that was starting to draw a lot more attention than it had a minute ago. “That is a thing we _definitely_ will do.”

He grabbed Leenik’s wrist and began to pull the Rhodian away; Leenik offered barely any resistance as he followed, rather taking the opportunity to slide his hand into Tryst’s and tangle their fingers together.

“Everyone here is _kriffin_ crazy.” Tryst muttered, trying to surreptitiously disengage his hand from Leenik’s, only to have the Rhodian adjust his grip to suction their digits together.

“ _Trystan! Leenik!_ ”

“Oh!” Leenik stopped and waved with his and Tryst’s joined hands. “There’s Lyn. Hi Lyn!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] The theory being that a single common ancestry would help explain why so many sapient species both enjoy getting drunk socially, and can get drunk off the same materials, while asking the question why an ancestral super race thought that would be a good character to include into the mix and didn’t think to do anything about hangovers. Naroo is currently collecting data for a chapter on the impacts of alcohol-subtype gamma (i.e. scrumple) on social interactions in academic environments, sorry Bacta – always a Space!Guinea Pig.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So all warnings from previous chapters still hold here (a – Side Trip was awesome, b - unbeta’d, c – kanan is canon for me, d – my experiences at academic conferences may be cooler than yours). 
> 
> Ooof guys, this one’s gonna be a bit rough – sorry, I’ve now caught up with what plot I had sketched out and so we’re flying blind and it's seriously cutting into my "editing" time. That being said, I think I’ve got maybe two more chapters, so if there isn’t an update next weekend, it might just all get posted the weekend after that to give me a bit more time to massage things.
> 
> Thanks as always for staying with this ridiculous fic! I’m super pumped for the response it’s been getting.
> 
> A big happy shout out to everyone who’s left kudos/comments, you are the only reason this beast is gonna get completed at this point!

Lyn hurried over to where she’d spotted Leenik and Tryst. Although the posters had been set up in a fairly big hall, she had had a good idea which poster they were heading for, even without Leenik waving his and Tryst’s grasped hands enthusiastically as she raced over. It also helped that the pair of them stood out like sore thumbs among the more sedate academic populace for all that they’d raided her closet earlier that morning.

“Leenik, what are you and Tryst doing?” Lyn hissed, gesturing with the hand not holding her caf for Leenik to lower his and Tryst’s hands.

“Why Lyn,” Tryst answered through gritted teeth, as he tried to pry his hand out of Leenik’s, who was now pretending to be very distracted by the poster’s contents. “We’re _learning_. _Isn’t learning great, Leenik?_ ”

“ _Reeeaaaalllllyyyy?_ ” Lyn took a fortifying sip of her caf. “ _What_ exactly have you been learning?”

“Mostly that everyone here is _kriffin’_ insane.” Tryst muttered, finally jerking his hand free from Leenik’s with a several small pops.

“Ooops,” Leenik said innocently, keeping his eyes on the poster, although anyone would think he looked far too pleased with himself. “I was _so_ distracted by all this _learning_ that I completely forgot I was still holding your hand.”

“Dr. ‘loorun?”

Lyn turned and noticed a young Chiss woman standing sheepishly in beside the poster Leenik was perusing. She was wearing a light grey jacket with a pleated skirt and fiddled with her name tag nervously as she tried to get Lyn’s attention.

“Yes?” Lyn asked, sheepish herself at being called out while she was trying to deal with her shipmates.

“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry - I guess this is the first time we’ve met in person isn’t it?” The woman said, blushing slightly as she held out a hand out for Lyn to shake; she twittered nervously. “I’m Shri Ya’ar. I just wanted to say thank you so, _so_ much for taking me on. I can’t even say how great an experience it’s been working under– I mean – with, _with_ you and Dr. Chitra.”

“Ahh, well, yes.” Lyn fumbled with her cup for a moment before taking the woman’s hand and shaking it gently. “It’s very, very nice to meet you– here– in person, I mean, too.”

“Oh my _ringest gods_ ,” Tryst breathed, leaning into Leenik’s space and trying to shuffle them a bit away from the scene. “This is the best thing ever.”

“We’re learning so much,” Leenik agreed, although whether he was discussing the tableau or the poster was unclear.

“Oh good, I see you’ve met!” Tap said as he caught up, trotting up behind Lyn. He was slightly out of breath, but still holding gamely to his cup of caf. “Shri did excellent work on her poster; _didn’t she, Lyn_?” Tap asked, coughing pointedly when Lyn didn’t respond or let go of Shri’s hand.

“What?” Lyn blinked in startlement, her lekku giving a bit of a twitch as she dropped the Chiss’ hand. “I mean, yes. It’s– it’s excellent work.” Lyn looked away for a quick glance over the poster. “I mean, I’m– _we’re_ very happy to support you in your–” Tap surreptitiously poked Lyn twice in the back with the ring finger of his right hand, “your second year of doctoral research in anthropological studies of outer rim worlds.” Lyn continued with barely a pause.

“We could get caf together?” Lyn pointedly did not look down at the cup she was currently holding. “ _I mean_ \- we could get caf and go over your body _– your body of work –_ and your academic goals for the upcoming year.” She finished gamely over Tryst’s snickering.

“That would be wonderful Dr. ’loorun.” Shri gushed, surreptitiously smoothing out some wrinkles on her skirt. “I would just love to hear _all_ about your recent sabbatical on Myrkr; I’m sure your research findings from such a location would be fascinating.”

“It’s just like ‘Our Study Sessions on Scipio’”, Leenik said dreamily to Tryst. They’d moved slightly off to the side to a better vantage point that still ensured they were close enough to hear both sides of the conversation, not just the part that was being piped through their comms.

“I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that study?”

“ _Anakin Skywalker!_ ” Tryst swore, grabbing his chest dramatically as Leenik jumped like a startled Porg; the two smugglers twirling to stare behind them. Belatedly they realised that they’d been so engrossed in Lyn’s fumbling interaction that they hadn’t noticed her shadow joining them until he’d spoken. “Who are you?” “And how did you _sneak_ like that?” They said over each other.

Tap clutched his satchel with one hand and gingerly lowered the arm holding his cup, which had shot up into the air when _he’d_ jumped at their response. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you; I just wanted to come and introduce myself.” He said, making an effort to tug his clothes and tie straight. “You two are part of Lyntel’s current study population, correct?”

“Noooo,” Leenik said slowly, using his explaining-something-to-Tamlin voice. “We’re her _friends_.”

“Yes,” Tap smiled bemusedly at them. “That’s what she says too. I’m Dr. Tap Chitra; Lyntel may have mentioned me?” He suddenly fumbled his still half-full cup of caf, as he remembered that he should offer a hand for them to shake.

“Wait,” Tryst drawled, looking Tap up and down appraisingly. He made no move to shake the hand Tap held out. “ _You’re_ Lyn’s BFF?!”

“I’m – I’m afraid that’s not a term I’m familiar with?” Tap’s eyes twinkled with excitement and he immediately dropped his hand to pull out a small data recorder from his satchel.

“Her _BFF_ ,” Tryst repeated as Tap angled the mic towards him.

“It’s not a weird Mynock thing.” Lyn cut in from where she and Shri were going through the finer points of the Chiss’ statistical analyses, obviously still listening in on the comms.

“Hey! We don’t _have_ weird Mynock things.” Leenik protested, as Tap’s face visibly fell in disappointment and he took a despondent sip of caf before he put his recorder away.

“And my understanding is those weird Mynock things just got us room and board for a couple of nights, so don’t go knocking our ‘unique cultural practices’.” Tryst gave sarcastic finger quotes and glared at the researcher as Tap whipped out a datapad to get a holo of the gesture.

“You are the crew of the Mynock, then?” Shri asked, stepping up beside Lyn so she could speak to Tryst and Leenik directly, seeming to unconsciously brush against the Professor as she moved. “I am about to start working on my next manuscript… If you could spare a few minutes, I would love to talk through a few… case studies… for clarification on how you might respond to some theoretical situations for the paper.”

“Ahh yes, of course.” Lyn swallowed audibly as Shri leaned into her space, before the twi’lek gave herself a little shake and turned to Tap. “ _Dr. Chitra_ , do you mind if we take a moment to talk about tomorrow’s presentation?”

Lynn reached over and, rather desperately, grabbed Tap’s arm, pulling him across the aisle to stand in front of a currently abandoned poster. She and Tap looked at each other and snorted in unison at the title “On the significance of submerged discarded spacecraft and their potential use in identifying sites of ‘historical’ importance”.

“And you were worried about the empire questioning _me_?” Tap said in disbelief as he blew on his caf to cool it. Lyn raised an eyebrow archly at him, but then paled as she caught the sound of Shri laughing at something Leenik was explaining to her.

“That is one of _my_ _students_?” Lyn hissed in evident disbelief.

“Well, yes.” Tap assured her. “Shri is doing excellent work, which you’d know if you’d read the department newsletters instead of constantly having them shoved under some pile of books in your office.”

“I know for a _fact_ that my office is the cleanest it’s ever been; don’t try to tell me you didn’t ‘organise’ as soon as the Dean gave me leave.” Lyn said, glaring weakly at Tap as he hid a smug smile behind his cup. “But the question isn’t if she’s doing good work, I mean – you _must_ have noticed that she’s a _Chiss_!”

“Dr. Lyntel’loorun!” Tap hissed, looking around to see if anyone had heard. “I’m shocked! Honestly shocked, to hear that type of ‘sentiment’ from you. Considering your own ethnic background, that type of prejudice is just completely unexpected.”

“Tap, that is _not_ what I meant and _you know it_ ,” Lyn’s exasperation was clear in her voice. “I mean - how many _female Chiss_ do you think are currently operating around the core worlds?!”

“Oh? Oh!” Tap’s eyes widened as he caught her meaning. “Noooo, I mean… She wouldn’t be, would she? She’s been a rather ideal student and it’s part of the code of conduct that one of us would need to sign off on her having a secondary occupation while we’re supervising her.”

“Yes,” Lyn said, shaking her head in disbelief at her friend’s naivety. “I imagine being an infamous thief with a particular interest in ancient artifacts would be something you might want to leave off of grant applications.” Lyn held out her cup as Tap got out his flask to refill their cups, even as he gave her a judging glance. “Just because I don’t _fill_ _in_ the applications doesn’t mean I don’t know how they work.” She paused and took a long sip of whiskey before continuing. “And you can’t tell me she isn’t _awfully_ pretty, Tap.”

“Lyntel!” Although not a drop spilled, Tap’s hand stuttered as he refilled his own cup. “I’m becoming quite concerned about the impact this sabbatical is having on you.” He paused and took a drink to compose himself before carrying on. “Attractive she might be, but first and foremost she is a student. A student who just happens to be a Chiss; with a very specific academic background; who contacted me directly to indicate her specific interest in coming in under you...” Tap trailed off and took a large sip of his whiskey.

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s very interested in _coming_ under Lyn.”

“Tryst!!” Lyn expertly grabbed the flask of whiskey from Tap as the researcher jumped in surprise, again, with a sputtered, “Dear force, what is _wrong_ with you people?!”

“Don’t worry ‘ _Dr._ _Robinson’_ ,” Tryst leered smugly at Lyn, ignoring Tap’s question. “Leenik’s still going over the Mynock’s contingency plans with your star student over there and I thought I should get to know your friend here a little bit better.” He looked them over and his eyes caught on the flask Lyn was still holding onto. “Wait – are you two _drunk?!_ ”

“My good man,” Tap said, staring at the smuggler in shock. “You were planning to attend this event _sober?_ ”

“ _Tryst_.” Lyn hissed as she hid the flask in the inner pocket of her coat, she certainly didn’t want to have to _share_. “Now is _not_ the time.”

“Oh, I beg to disagree.” Tryst smiled as he stepped closer and moved to swing an arm over Tap’s shoulders so he could make a play for the researcher’s cup. “We’ve been travelling together for years,” “Weeks, Tryst, weeks.” Lyn huffed, watching Tryst stumble as Tap, with unexpected grace, ducked under the smuggler’s arm, expertly keeping the cup just out of Tryst’s reach. Tryst blinked and comically felt the air where the researcher had been standing a second ago. “Well, it _feels_ like it’s been a lot longer and I speak for the rest of the crew when I say that we’re all _very_ curious about your best friend who _isn’t_ Bacta.”

Lyn snorted and rolled her eyes seemingly dismissive, even as she moved to step between him and Tap. “Is _that_ what all this has been about? I talked to Bacta, he’s fine. There is no need for your ‘Project BFF’.”

“Bacta?” Tap asked, looking questioningly over Lyn’s shoulder.

“ _Oh my god_ Lyn,” Tryst sounded shocked, and also a bit like all his life days had come at once. “ _He doesn’t even know Bacta’s name?!_ This is going to _kill_ Bacta when he finds out.”

]

“What?! No - Don’t- Tryst, don’t do this! It’s not nice.” Lyn groaned, face-palming with one hand, while still expertly keeping her cup out of Tryst’s reach with the other.

“What’s not nice is your BFF not even knowing _our_ _names_.” Tryst pulled back his hand to waggle a finger at her. “Research aside Lyn, I _thought_ you were our _friend_. And friends talk to their friends about their other friends behind their backs.”

Lyn, still holding her cup, rubbed her temples and said at her driest. “No Tryst, they don’t.”

“Well, _we_ do Lyn,” Tryst said sanctimoniously. “And it _hurts_ that we don’t even matter enough to you for you to talk about us behind our backs.”

“Oh! That’s not it at all.” Tap cut in as he flicked off his recorder, ignoring the face Lyn made at him. “I, of course, know _who_ Bacta is, Lyn mentions him frequently in her letters-”

“Lyn writes letters?!” Tryst cut Tap off, as he gestured angrily at Lyn. “After all the _karffing_ complaining you do about us-”

“I send carefully coded letters to my life-long friend, Tryst,” Lyn snapped. “ _You_ hand out business cards with our comm information to people _on the_ _street_ and launder pornographic trading cards!”

“And it also helps that I follow your podcast.” Tap continued, his quiet statement cutting off the burgeoning argument.

“ _You listen to our podcast?!_ ” Lyn asked, so shocked that she didn’t even respond as Tryst successfully stole her, now mostly emptied, cup.

“Of course!” Tap said, unerringly snagging the cup as Tryst went to toss it, now emptied, under the poster. “It reminds me of when I let you convince me to actually,” Tap shuddered dramatically at Lyn, “ _travel_ on the Economic Independence I...”

Lyn and Tap turned as one to glance back at where Leenik and Shri were still talking animatedly.

“Are you sure she _isn’t_?” “Even if she _were_ , she’s just set up the lab’s database, so I could hardly let her go at this point.”

“Not that I’d want to interrupt anyone staring at Lyn’s hot student,” Tryst waved his hand in front of Lyn’s face. “But I feel like the important part of this conversation is that I told you so.”

Lyn blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Remember when you were complaining about us answering Dear Mynock’s a few months ago and I said that we’d only _started_ that whole thing once _you_ were on the ship?” Tryst smiled smugly.

“Oh.” Lyn sighed in resignation.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Tryst tapped on his comm to ensure he had the team’s attention. “Looks like that’s a BIG OL’FORFIET coming to Tryst Valentine. Be prepared for iambic pentameter Dr. ’loorun.”

“ _Sithspit._ ” Lyn muttered, turning from Tryst’s smug grin to Tap’s slightly bewildered one. “So you’ve been listening to the podcast?”

“Well yes. I mean, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the current course materials.” Tap took a moment to hand the second cup he was holding back to Tryst. Who looked surprised even as he took it from the researcher.

“ _COURSE MATERIALS?!”_ Lyn’s raised voice caused a few of the other attendees to turn and stare before they went back to perusing the posters in relative silence. “Tap, we _don’t_ run a course where people are _required_ to listen to, quite frankly, _terrible_ advice from _wanted fugitives_ _engaging in rebel guerrilla activities!_ ”

“Technically the multimedia files _supplement_ the first-year MHOC; they aren’t _required_ materials yet-” Tap started explaining, but stopped as Lyn held up a hand.

“Wait, is this that- That _thing_ you were asking me about as I was heading to Mykyr?” Lyn’s lekku flattened in evident despair. “Dr. Chitra. _What. Is. A. MHOC?”_

“Is this a rhetoric question _Dr. ‘loorun_?” Tap asked, pulling off the innocent act at least as well as Leenik had earlier.

“No Tap, it is _NOT_ rhetorical.” Lyn hissed. “You know I’m not- I’m not _good_ with these types of things!”

“A MHOC, such as the one _we_ have been co-supervising together for the last several terms, is a Massive Holo-Open Course.” Tap explained shortly as he met Lyn’s eyes. “You gave _me_ your _full_ permission to run the labs and associated training as I saw fit during your sabbatical.”

“I told you to do what needed to be done; as I was _crashing_ into a planet!” Lyn replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t tell you to start another course, Tap; we don’t have time for that!”

“Well, forgive me for being concerned that you weren’t going to make your quota for teachable hours!” Tap argued.

“I don’t _need_ to cover teachable hours! _I’m a tenured professor on sabbatical_.” Lyn insisted, flailing a bit for the flask in her jacket.

“Yes, which is why the MHOC format is perfect.” Tap said agreeably. “No one expects you to participate directly and between the holos I have from our ‘vacations’, your old lecture notes, which Shri was kind enough to digitize, and the podcasts; we have _quite_ the active educational community.”

“Oh! That reminds me!” Tap snapped his fingers distractedly and began to walk purposefully back to Shri’s poster, completely ignoring Lyn’s look of absolute terror at being semi-responsible for an active _online_ community.

“Your bestie, isn’t all that bad actually.” Tryst said, coming up beside Lyn and snagging the flask from numbed fingers. “I can see why you’d chose him over Bacta.”

“Are you not the _LEAST BIT WORRIED_ that _everything_ we’ve been doing is being shared via the holonet for millions, if not billions of people across the galaxy?!” Lyn’s outrage was evident although she managed to keep herself from shouting this time.

“Well, it seems to me that this, _Dr. ’loorun.”_ Tryst said, smiling evilly as they followed in Tap’s wake. “Is a case of space!pot calling the kettle black, if you know what I mean. And what I mean is that we’re currently standing in front of a poster that describes how Subject _VT_ engages with clothing as a means to feel more connected to his loose familial bonds’.” Tryst snorted dismissively. “I’m sure that _nerdlinger_ over there is keeping everything nice and discreet.”

“Now that we’ve been properly introduced, I would be most obliged if you called me _Dr. Chitra_.” Tap said to Tryst. “Although you are quite right that we’ve taken the precaution of removing names and salient information so as to not jeopardise Lyn’s ongoing research.” He then turned to Leenik, holding out his hand. “Which is actually what I wanted to speak with you about.”

“Hi, I’m Leenik Geelo.” Leenik reached out his synthetic hand to return Tap’s offered handshake.

“Yes, I’d rather assumed that was the case.” Tap said seriously. “I normally don’t get involved so directly, but one of the TAs asked me to speak with you about some of the discussion threads you’ve been instigating on the forums. He’d normally speak to you directly, you understand, but there were concerns about a conflict of interest.”

Leenik pulled his hand back to scowl darkly at the professor, but before he could say anything Shri cut in.

\

“Don’t worry Sir,” Shri’s eyes flickered red in what looked like excitement. “Leenik and I were just talking about moving those materials to a more _appropriate_ archival location off the general access boards.”

“Leenik, you are _taking_ this course?” Lyn asked in disbelief, turning to the Rhodian.

“Why Leenik is one of the top student contributors,” Shri said. “The other TA, who manages the forums, raves about Leenik’s work all the time. The piece on the role of communal bathing-”

Tryst started coughing, sputtering the whiskey that he’d just (re)stolen as he turned to Leenik. “ _Kriff_ , when you said you gave that a 10/10…”

“Oh, _Anakin Skywalker_ , it _is_ you.” Lyn spun around, looking for the voice that seemed to come from behind her, quiet, but audible over Tryst and Leenik’s furiously whispered conversation. “I mean, he _said_ that you were here, but my study populations tend to say a lot of weird stuff…”

Lyn looked down. “I’m sorry, you are?”

The Ewok who had been standing behind Lyn, shook herself a bit as if she were waking up. “Oh no. I mean- I’m so sorry Dr. ‘loorun. They _said_ you were going to be the keynote speaker, but I don’t think any of us _believed_ it. Seriously, who’d the organising committee need to _kriff_ to get you to come out?”

“Why hello, Naroo,” Tap said, pocketing his recorder and turning away from Tryst and Leenik’s conversation.

“Oh! Dr. Tap! I didn’t see you there.” Naroo gave a little wave at the researcher, although she kept her large eyes fixed unwaveringly on Lyn for all that she was starting to sound even more nervous. “Your friend Bacta…”

“Naroo,” Tap interrupted, finishing off his whiskey. “As a member of your thesis committee I really must insist that you find an _actual_ study population outside of your academic peers.” Tap sighed at her expression. “Or, at least, we need to bring on a xenologist to ensure we create a series of procedures for alcohol poisoning. Is he at least ambulatory?”

“ _Kriff_ ,” Tryst grimaced, turning to Leenik and shaking the emptied flask he’d taken from Lyn. “Is everyone here drunk, but us?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again - apologies for how rough this is!   
> If you notice any spelling mistakes or just flat out errors, please don't heistate to let me know.
> 
> Cheers,   
> GJ


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So all warnings from previous chapters still hold here (a – Side Trip was awesome, b - unbeta’d, c – kanan is canon for me, d – my experiences at academic conferences may be cooler than yours). 
> 
> You might notice that my characterization of Leenik and Tryst leans really heavy towards some of the spectacular Ace!Leenik/Tryst pairing stuff (If you can help ID/rec in the comments please feel free to do so!) that’s cause they are ADORABLE in that setting and I loves it. I’m totally not trying to poach anyone’s particular wheelhouse, but that’s a) my jam and b) very, very much my fav headcannon for this series. 
> 
> Thanks as always for staying with this ridiculous fic! I am a bit shocked that it a) got written and b) finished(!!!); which it super would not have been without all the fantastic support from you all!  
> I hope you enjoy the ending and see yah on the next episode!

“There had to have been a better idea than this.” Lyn turned in her chair to look behind her. “ _Frina’s_ plan was better than this.”

“Welll,” Tryst drawled, sounding more than a little put out. “Considering how drunk _everyone_ , except me, Leenik, and your sexy TA, whose name that definitely _isn’t_ by the way _,_ is; it was this or we let Leenik murder everyone here. It’s not like there was a drunk tank beside the weapons check we could just dump you all at.”

Lyn pointed an unfortunately steading finger accusingly at the smuggler. “There is _no weapons check!_ This is an _academic_ conference!”

“Actually Lyntel…” Tap trailed off abruptly as Lyn swung back to turn her glare at the researcher in the seat beside her. “There actually _is_ a weapons check, you’ve just never used it.”

“Thass- Thass jus’like Lyn. Always making her own desss-dess-decisions.” Bacta agreed, shifting himself a bit more upright in his position on the floor, propped up against the legs of the chairs in front of Lyn and Tap.

“Does your friend normally get _so_ inebriated at academic conferences, Lyntel?” Tap asked as he pulled his legs in as far as he could, just in case the clone started crying again. “It’s just, I had rather been hoping we could get a start on the slide deck for tomorrow; there’s only a few more hours until the gala, we’re rather out of whiskey, and I’d rather not bank on either of us managing to get work done after tha-”

“Look, _nerdingler_ -” Tryst’s poke caused Tap to jump a bit, although the researcher managed to stifle the yelp that would have undoubtedly gotten them more judging looks from the rest of the lecture’s attendees.

“Would you _please_ stop calling me that?!” Tap hissed as he looked over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes at the smuggler. “ _Lyn,_ would you please tell _your_ friend to stop calling me that?”

“Why don’t you just ask _your_ _number-one-student Leenik Geelo_ to do it?” Lyn huffed, as she craned her neck to glare at Leenik, who was sitting beside Tryst and looking, for all intents and purposes, to be avidly listening to the talk. 

“ _Our_ number-one-student, Lyn.” Tap said long-sufferingly, nodding at Leenik with approval. “And _that_ would be highly inappropriate of me. It goes well against the school’s code of conduct for a professor to exert such control over their student’s personal life and relationships. Whereas,” he poked Lyn in the leg to get her attention. “Whereas, you are _my_ _friend_ and _your_ other friends are being _mean_ to me… Or drunkenly cuddling against my leg.” Tap looked down at the clone who was much closer, but thankfully still not crying. “Lyntel, these pants are space-Burberry.”

“Just make sure you don’t kiss him back-”

“No, _I’m_ sorry Tap.” Lyn said, speaking over Tryst and pinching the bridge of her nose. “I just- This _really_ was not how I thought _this_ would go.”

Leenik poked his head over the gap between her and Tap’s seats. “You mean you _weren’t_ expecting to be hiding in the back of a lecture hall while we waited for Bacta to sober up?” The Rhodian leaned back and started riffling through his conference bag. “That’s my bingo!!”

“Honestly Leenik!” Lyn turned again to hiss at him. “No! Put the card away!” She turned back to Tap who, although still looking uncomfortable, no longer looked quite as sad. “I guess I just assumed that they’d all walk in, get really, _really_ bored, and then _leave_.”

Tryst scoffed as he skillfully switched his and Leenik’s bingo cards while the Rhodian was searching through his bag. “Seriously Lyn, it’s no wonder you never win bingo if that’s your expectation of how this mission would go. I bet you didn’t even put down the ‘sex with my nemesis’ space; everyone knows you _always_ add the ‘sex with my nemesis’ space.”

“ _This wasn’t a mission Tryst._ ” Lyn hissed.

“Miss- Mission BFF!” Bacta slurred, letting go of Tap’s leg to curl into a tighter ball against the chair legs behind him. “Since you said it wasn’t me. And that… That just wasn’t cool Lyn.” Bacta started to cry again, although this time he seemed to have sobered up enough to somewhat muffle the noise and tears in the handkerchief Tap had passed down.

Tap twitched his legs as far away from the clone as he could while turning to look questioningly at the chair behind Lyn that wasn’t occupied by one of his students.

“Really, Dr. Tap. I don’t know what to say…” Naroo broke off from speaking rapidly into a data recorder to reassure the professor. “Based on his reaction though, I think it might be best to reach out to clones as a subpopulation – he’s really skewing my results. Do you think I could submit a grant proposal to the conference organisers to help fund a couple of pizzas for a focus group?”

“Seriously Bacta,” Lyn reached out and gingerly patted the clone on his bald head. “We’ve talked about this. You are my friend, Leenik is my friend, Tony is my friend. Tryst.” She paused. “Is… also my friend. And so is Tap.”

“But I’m your best friend.” Tap said smugly, even as he smoothed what wrinkles he could out of his pants.

“Dr. _Chitra_ , you are _not_ helping!” Lyn snapped throwing up her hands in exasperation.

“Yeah nerdlinger,” Tryst poked Tap in the back again, leading the researcher to look imploringly at Lyn. “I mean Bacta’s a wet blanket, and he’s really, _really_ bad at the _one_ thing he’s supposed to be good at, and he’s got all these weird “family” problems that keep coming up, and trust me – I know weird families. But Lyn’s best friend should at least be _cool_ , and a stuffy _academic_ nerdlinger _isn’t cool_. In fact, let’s put it to a vote.” Tryst smiled smugly. “Who says Bacta would be a better best friend than this guy? Raise your hands.”

Tryst raised his hand and Bacta flailed a bit, but managed to get himself propped up enough to lift one hand into the air.

“Seems like that’s three to two for Bacta-”

“Tryst, don’t try to take advantage of the fact that Leenik suctioned your hands together again!” Lyn said angrily. “Even if we were going to do something that _stupid_ ; it’s two to two-”

“Excellent!” A loud, but somewhat unsure, voice cut Lyn’s burgeoning rant off. “Yes, back there. Sir, what was your question?”

“Ahhhh…” Tryst started, starring towards the stage.

“Yes, you had your hand raised for a question?” The student at the front was obviously not wasting the chance to have actual audience interaction, more than likely they’d be able to drink for free on this story for weeks to come.

“Yes, thank you. Leenik Geelo of the Mynock here.” Leenik stood up and waved with his other hand. “Can you elaborate more on the reasoning behind your methodology and how you dealt with the inherit biases from that method?”

“Oh… Umm… Well you see…” The student trailed off as Leenik sat back down to the incredulous stares from his shipmates. Tap reached into his pouch and pulled out a small “No. 1 Student!” sticker which he passed back to the Rhodian, who blushed and starry-eyed said, “Oh, Tony’s gonna be so _proud_ of his momma!”

“I’m going to get kicked out of an academic conference…” Lyn groaned, burying her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I’m going to be kicked out of an _academic_ conference.”

“Again.”

Everyone’s focus fixed on Tap, who seemed distracted as he updated a few grading notes on his datapad. He looked up as he noticed the silence around him.

Lyn shook her head vehemently. “Tap, they really, _really_ don’t need to know about that.”

“No, no. This is something that I am very interested in.” Bacta inched closer to Tap’s leg and managed to pat it on the second try.

“ _Tapppp_ , don’t you dare!”  Lyn hissed at him, as he held his datapad in like a shield in between them as she tried to grab at him. Leenik and Tryst, sensing a weak point, moved to block her by squishing into the front row between them.

“Why Lyntel,” Tap sounded as if blue butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. “I would never _dream_ of sharing the salacious details of any of your exploits.”

“Wait.” Tryst sounded like all his lifedays had come at once as he looked at the researcher with new, slightly more respectful, eyes. “Lyn got kicked out of a conference for _sexing someone up?!_ ”

“No. No.” Lyn, not wanting to draw more ire from the room’s other participants, was restricted to poking her crewmates angrily in their backs, rather than resorting to a full brawl as she might have liked. “That is not what _happened. Tap, why are you doing this?_ ”

“Well Lyntel,” The smile in Tap’s voice was evident although Lyn couldn’t see it, her crewmates having formed a protective circle around him. “According to _your_ most recent paper, it’s extremely important to follow local customs when you are being introduced to a new culture. I believe that Tryst here mentioned earlier that it is customary for friends to talk about friends behind their backs, and I find that, as your _best_ friend, it behooves me to ingratiate myself with your new comrades.”

“I have no idea what that means, but chop, chop, get with the story about how Lyn got sexiled from Nerdfest 19 BBY,” Tryst said. “You might not actually be such a stick-in-the-sand after all, Dr. Tap.”

“I will _literally_ kill you for this, Dr. Chitra.” Lyn said, but it was obvious she was trying hard to keep the laughter from her voice.

“But then who would make your Powerpoint presentation for tomorrow, Dr. ‘Loorun?” Tap said, before he coughed briefly and said in his lecturing voice. “So Lyn and I were at P-GAA when we realized that the other keynote speaker-”

“Pssst. Dr. ‘Loorun.” Lyn turned to see that in the commotion Naroo had snuck up beside her and was holding out a small flask. The Ewok smiled at her. “Second author on your next paper and it’s all yours.”

“How about fourth author, but I’ll list you under the Acknowledgements?” Lyn countered, even as she reached out. “I can always hold out until the gala starts in a few hours.”

“Fourth author, Acknowledgements, and… If I request you on my thesis advisory committee, you’ll say yes?” Naroo asked tentatively, holding the flask just out of Lyn’s reach.

“So Lyn turns and punches Thrawn in the face-”

“Done!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is actually it!  
> Again - thank you all so much for your lovely comments and kudos. I have _never_ written anything that wasn't being graded that was this long, or this much of a labour of love before. Really I can't say enough how awesome it was having your support and guidance on this ridiculous journey :)  
>  It's been such a fun time writing our whacky group of misfits, that I don't expect this will be the last (although I've been putting a lot on hold to work on this - eep! - so there might be a brief pause)
> 
> Be well!

“And so by looking at commonalities between these different cultural practices, we can better understand ourselves and the galaxy around us.” Lyn finished.

She gave the applause a few moments to die down before she clicked onto the last slide which just said ‘Questions?’ in several different languages, fonts and cheerful colours. She looked at it for a long moment and sighed audibly. “So if you have a question,” several dozen arms and other appendages were hastily raised into the air across the audience. “Well yes – I think one of the undergrads will be around with a mic.” She squinted at the crowd and noticed one of the minions waving frantically at her. “First question?”

“Why yes. _Dr. Lyntel‘Loorun_ -” Lyn groaned, recognising the voice easily. “Those are some very nice _sunglasses_ …”

“Not appropriate Dr. Chitra! _Next question!_ ” Lyn gestured at the undergrads to move to someone else.

“Ahhh…” A rather nervous male voice stuttered across the sound system and even though it made her head pound, Lyn couldn’t help smiling in relief that she didn’t immediately recognise the voice. “Re-regarding th-the events at the g-gala last night…”

“ _Seriously?_ ” Lyn snarled, cutting the kid off and glaring across the audience. The effect was somewhat dampened by the large, purple, cat-eye sunglasses she’d stolen from Leenik that morning. “Ok, who _doesn’t_ have a question about the gala?”

Slowly the vast majority of the hands in the room dropped leaving only a small smattering of dedicated academics who now looked a bit sheepish at being singled out. Lyn could clearly see one, Dr. Tap Chitra, waving at her, obviously having corralled another minion with a mic. Lyn grumbled and took off the sunglasses revealing the rather large black eye that she’d be sporting for the next day or so at least.

“Ok – so…” Lyn started, paused and started again. “Ok, there might come a time in your careers, even if you don’t stay in academia, where you might need to make a choice, about what is easy and what is hard, or what is good and bad, although those things aren’t mutually exclusive and are generally based on the cultural norms of the person making the choice. But hopefully one of your options will be punching an imperial inquisitor in the face. That’s an easy choice, and something that I hope you all have a chance to do, but remember that getting out there and _learning_ and publishing in open access journals is just like punching imperial inquisitors in the face _all the time._ Not everyone needs to be _physically_ punching people _all the time, right Leenik?_ ” Lyn said the last bit bitingly over her shoulder at the Rhodian who was standing just out of the camera’s view field. “We all have parts we can play to help each other, which might be writing papers-“

“Which include carefully coded messages.”  Tryst said as he slid into the seat beside Lyn in the Mynock’s cockpit and moved to flip the camera off.

“Shut up, Tryst!” Lyn smacked at his hands and threw a couple of pens with the PAGAA logo on them towards him.

“Look Lyn, I get what you are trying to do.” Tryst made an effort to speak loudly enough to ensure that her mic would pick him up as well.  “ _Rah, rah, rah_ and don’t let the Empire get you down. But, this is the _cockpit_ , remember? And what else do we use the cockpit for besides podcasting and, apparently, _livestreaming_? That’s right. _FLYING._ And I really, _really_ need to do some serious flying _right now_ if we wanna get out of dodge without Zero appropriating anymore of Leenik’s body parts.”

Bacta beeped in on the comms. “Can I say ‘especially the body parts that you are personally and frequently attached to?’”

“Unnecessary buddy, but I guess we’re glad that you’re making full sentences again.” Tryst waved his hand in front of Lyn’s camera in a crude goodbye. “So, thanks for your hospitality and a **_BIG_** thanks to ‘whoever’”. He took a moment to make air quotes with the hand that was still in front of the camera as Lyn batted him away again. “ _Whoever_ it was, that somehow dropped that slug-thrower _right_ into Bacta’s hand when we needed it.”

There was a bit of scuffling on the other end of the connection as someone made a grab for one of the mics. “Uhhh, can we get that _back_? I mean – we all appreciate the fact that you’re a bit busy right now, but our lab worked _really_ hard on that and we didn’t even get a chance to take stills for the publication.”

“Hey Bacta,” Tryst called back over the comms, starting to pull the Mynock into the meteor field Lyn was directing them too. Their navigator seeming happy to pass any further questions about the gala and it’s events onto better suited co-authors. “Where did you stash the slug-thrower? Your adoring public wants to know!”

There was a small smattering of cheers, applause, and, a bit alarmingly, a snippet of a rather soulful rendition of “Home of a Rest” before Bacta was able to pause shooting at their pursuit along enough to get back on the channel.

“Well, I didn’t take it with me! I mean- _did you see what that did to Synox?!_ ” Bacta swore. “There’s kids onboard this ship!”

“Sorry, guys. Maybe look through the weapons check and see if it got turned in? I mean, if _we_ didn’t pocket it, I can’t think of who did.” Tryst moved again to turn off the holo-feed, but Lyn grabbed his hand.

“Wait! Before we go-” Lyn said. “Leenik says Tony will have the holo of this lecture up on the net whenever we next find free wi-fi, so maybe sometime early next week? And you'd better get that honorarium, Tap!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Peace is a lie, there is only passion_

**Author's Note:**

> Your comments and kudos are very much appreciated!!


End file.
